Boons

+SPD: Kliff’s best overall boon regardless of his chosen weapon, as it enables him to both perform and deny follow-up attacks with relative ease, greatly enhancing his individual performance.

Neutral

ATK: Kliff’s Attack stat is a bit of a mixed bag in that depending on his choice of weapon, it can either be a serviceable boon or is best left untouched -- if utilizing a Blade tome, an Attack boon can be a decent alternative should a Speed boon not be available but if making use of his personal tome, Sagittae, his Attack stat should remain neutral so as to not hinder his ability to activate his weapon’s effect.

HP / DEF: Both of these stats should be left alone in order to preserve his respectable physical bulk (for a mage) of 62, which generally allows him to safely take a hit from an opposing physical damage dealing foe. Furthermore, taking a bane in either stat results in a four-point decrease as opposed to the usual three, making them both undesirable choices for a bane.

Banes

-RES: Kliff is best off taking a Resistance bane, as this allows him to preserve his physical bulk while still retaining enough magical bulk to typically take a single hit from a non-green mage.

Kliff’s personal tome, Sagittae, has proven to be one of the more unique personal weapons released thus far, potentially granting the young villager with an impressive +5 boost to all of his stats aside from his HP. However, it comes with one huge caveat: Kliff must have at least five fewer Attack points than his opponent in order to activate Sagittae’s effect. Although this renders the tome’s effect to be rather unreliable, it can still be quite potent and transform Kliff into a unit capable of tackling a wide variety of threats under the proper circumstances.

For his Special, Aether is a strong choice that grants him concurrent sustain and damage output increase, on top of scoring well in Arena, allowing him to be self-sufficient as well as engage in extended combat. In exchange for losing out on Aether’s sustain in favor of more damage, Blue Flame can also be considered, though it will force Kliff to focus more on his matchups in the Enemy Phase in order to reliably meet its requirement of having an adjacent ally. On a budget, Bonfire is a solid option and will add on 16 points of damage each time upon activation, if assuming that Sagittae’s effect is active.

Close Counter is an excellent option to utilize as Kliff’s A slot skill as it adds on to his versatility and allows him to leverage his decent mixed bulk against melee and ranged foes alike in the Enemy Phase. With Sagittae’s effect and the Close Def seal, Kliff can reach an even 39/39 defensive spread while retaining his excellent Speed stat, enabling him to easily take on most forms of damage. On a budget, Kliff’s native Fortress Def/Res can be taken instead to dramatically increase his defensive stats, but this does come at the cost of losing coverage against melee opponents.

Kliff’s native Chill Spd is a powerful skill that allows him to forego the need for Quick Riposte altogether as foes who have enough Speed to avoid Kliff’s follow-up attack naturally are likely to be the ones targeted by Chill Spd's debuff, comfortably guaranteeing his ability to double on either phase; it also has the added benefit of providing team support. Alternatively, one can take Guard to strengthen his tanking capabilities and prevent his opponent from activating their Special; taking Guard in Kliff’s B slot does, however, require him to take Quick Riposte as his seal in order to guarantee his follow-up attack in the Enemy Phase.

Smoke skills pair well with this build’s playstyle, with the choice of which to take ultimately depending on personal preference. Res Smoke is a good option to increase his damage output whereas Atk Smoke can be taken to strengthen his survivability. If utilizing Guard + the Quick Riposte seal instead of Chill Spd, Spd Smoke can also be considered. Otherwise, Kliff’s C slot is flexible and can be filled with any skill that best supports his teammates.

This build aims to maximize Kliff’s damage output through the use of the powerful Blárblade tome, trading in his personal weapon, Sagittae, in exchange for a much higher damage ceiling. However, this does come at the cost of him being much more reliant on receiving team support in the form of field buffs as well as on his ability to consistently perform follow-up attacks in order to truly excel. Accordingly, a Speed boon is ideal for this build, but an Attack boon can be a serviceable option should no other be available.

Similar to other Blade tome users, Kliff makes excellent use of Glimmer, boasting a relatively low Special cooldown on top of scaling exceedingly well with the additional damage granted by Blárblade’s effect. He can also take Moonbow as his chosen Special to help against opponents with exceptionally high Resistance stats.

Atk/Spd Solo pairs well with this build's playstyle, greatly enhancing Kliff's offensive potential through its strong boost to both of his offenses so long as he has no adjacent allies. Should Atk/Spd Solo be unavailable, Swift Sparrow can be taken to grant him a potent, albeit weaker, +4/+4 Atk/Spd increase on initiation. Another suitable alternative, Fury offers Kliff a solid overall +3 stat-boost, simultaneously strengthening his offensive potential and bulk. Lastly, Life and Death can also be considered, providing Kliff with a slightly stronger boost to his offenses in comparison to the aforementioned skills, but comes at the cost of significantly lowering his defenses. This cut to his defenses can be especially debilitating when working with a -HP or -DEF bane, making it worth considering taking Ardent Sacrifice as his chosen Assist skill in order to immediately drop him into Desperation’s HP threshold without relying on his ability to take a hit.

Desperation is Kliff’s ideal choice for a B slot skill and enables him to unleash powerful attacks upon his opponent in succession, provided that he is under its HP threshold. As for his C slot, Wave skills such as Odd Atk Wave and Even Spd Wave are good options to consider, as they allow him to be more self-sufficient in the way that he receives buffs as well as provide team support on odd or even-numbered turns. Otherwise, Kliff has no attachment to any particular C slot skill and can use any skill that best supports his teammates, such as his native Fortify Res.

Lastly, the Speed +3 and Attack +3 seals are both good choices to grant either of his offenses a solid +3 bump. Thanks to Blárblade’s effect, Kliff can also utilize the Heavy Blade seal to great effect and make use of stronger Specials such as Draconic Aura, effectively circumventing its otherwise long Special cooldown.

Introduction

Kliff, Curious Spirit, finally makes his long-awaited arrival as the final Ram villager to join the cast as a blue infantry mage. Thanks to his excellent base Speed stat of 37, Kliff will typically have no problem performing follow-up attacks on opposing foes, only facing difficulties in doing so against the fastest of opponents. Although not exceptional, Kliff has decent enough mixed bulk to safely take a hit from an opposing foe regardless of the type of damage they deal, granting him significant leeway in picking his matchups in comparison to some of his direct counterparts. On the other hand, his Attack stat is middling at best and leaves his damage output much to be desired without the adequate support.

His personal tome, Sagittae, allows him to function as an exceedingly capable generalist, potentially giving him a staggering +5 Atk/Spd/Def/Res boost so long as the proper conditions are met -- these conditions, however, are less than ideal. In order for Kliff to actually benefit from Sagittae’s effect, he must have at least five fewer Attack points than his opponent. Not only does this cause the tome itself to be unreliable in practice, but this also renders Kliff to be intolerant of any visible buffs to his Attack stat as receiving them hinders his ability to activate its effect, detracting from his ease of use. Nonetheless, with smart play, one can still utilize Sagittae to great effect or choose to replace it altogether in favor of Blárblade for a more offensively-oriented approach. Overall, although not overwhelmingly powerful, Kliff is a solid unit and can perform to the same effectiveness as his comparables given the proper support and build.

Strengths

Excellent Speed

Kliff’s base Speed stat of 37 is one of his greatest strengths and allows him to easily perform and deny follow-up attacks against the majority of the cast.

Decent Mixed Bulk

Kliff’s decent physical and magical bulk of 62 (65 if equipped with Sagittae) and 65 respectively is generally enough bulk to let him safely take a hit from an opposing foe.

Sagittae

Albeit unreliable in nature, Sagittae allows Kliff to differentiate himself from the other blue infantry mages, sacrificing some of his offensive potential in exchange for astounding versatility.

Weaknesses

Situational PRF

Sagittae’s activation requirement, to put it nicely, is unwieldy and although it can enable Kliff to potentially perform as a competent generalist at times, it can also function as nothing but as a 14 Might tome with no additional effects in others. Furthermore, Sagittae discourages the use of skills such as Hone Atk alongside Kliff, as receiving such buffs to his Attack lowers the probability of him activating Sagittae’s effect.

It is, however, worth noting that Kliff can receive support to his Attack in the form of Spurs and Drives as in-combat buffs are not accounted for in the calculation for Sagittae to activate.

Heavy Competition

Joining the already bloated pool of strong blue infantry mages, Kliff faces fierce competition to earn a spot on a team from other mages with a stronger offensive presence such as Ishtar, Ophelia, and Linde or those who fulfill a far more valuable niche like Micaiah.

Refreshers: Kliff benefits greatly from receiving refresher support regardless of his chosen build, with some notable examples including Hoshidan Summer Micaiah, Olivia (YT), Bridal Ninian, New Year Azura, Performing Shigure, and Performing Inigo

Debuffers: Debuffers like Katarina, Spring Catria, and Spring Sharena should also be considered to use as teammates alongside Kliff, debilitating opposing foes to allow him to take them down much more easily.

Buffers: Particularly so when making use of Blárblade, buffers such as Ephraim, Eirika, and Performing Azura are good options for teammates, enhancing his performance immensely by giving him more firepower. If utilizing Sagittae, however, units such as Corrin (M), Marth, and Sanaki who provide in-combat buffs will be preferred.

Strong Reds: Despite his decent mixed bulk for a mage, Kliff will still crumble quite easily when facing off against strong greens. Accordingly, he appreciates having strong reds such as Halloween Myrrh, Owain, and Lilina as allies to alleviate him of the worry of having to deal with such opponents.

Counters

Strong Offense: Although Kliff can be surprisingly tanky thanks to his high Speed and Sagittae’s effect, units such as Summer Innes, Hector (LA), and Cherche can make use of their respective strong offenses and brute force their way into victory.

Strong Greens: Thanks to their weapon triangle advantage over Kliff, strong greens such as Halloween Kagero, Winter Chrom, Legendary Hector, Lewyn, and Nino (SF) can easily take down the young villager and act as suitable counters.

Tanks: Conversely, tanks like Sheena, Winter Lissa, Fallen Hardin, and Myrrh can safely take on Kliff’s attacks and promptly kill him in retaliation or on their own turn.

This build is designed to make use of the Sagittae’s all-stat+5 buff as often as possible so that Kliff remains unkillable for as long as possible.
*Disclaimer: Based on a +Res/-HP Kliff as those are the only IVs I’ve got for him.

The Sagittae grants every stat a +5 boost in combat so long as the enemy has at least 5 more Attack than Kliff. In this case, if an enemy has at least 44 Attack Kliff will recieve his defensive buffs. As far as the support skill goes, that’s up to you. Reposition is always a safe choice.

The Seal Resistance 3 B skill & Ignis were chosen to take advantage of Kliff’s increased defenses to deal good amounts of damage.

Kilff’s Fortress Def/Res 3 and the Fortress Defense 3 meanwhile work together to not only boost Kliff’s defensive stats outside of combat, but also serve to get Kliff’s Attack stat lowered so that he can activate his weapon’s ability against every one he goes up against.

Interchangeable Skills include:
- Any support skill you can think of
- Either Ignis or Glacies
- Even Def Wave for Ignis, or Odd Res Wave for Glacies
- Either the Fort Def. or Fort Res. Sacred Seal as you intentionally want to lower Kliff’s Attack stat to activate his weapon’s ability.

This set ditches Kliff’s base Sagittae due to its reliance on a low Attack stat. Instead, Kliff takes Blárserpent in order to tank ranged threats. With a combination of Chill Spd and Atk/Res Ploy, Kliff can reduce the enemies’ offensive and defensive potential with the right positioning. Swap is taken to make getting to the right spot all the more easier. The specific combo of Atk and Res Ploy is taken to both bolster Kliff’s innate tankiness as well as allow him to do meaningful damage to his enemies. Iceberg is taken to work off of Kliff’s higher Res stat.

While this is based on the Kliff I pulled, it also is a pretty good build. Base set is perfect, in my opinion, unless you’re going to want to mess with the B-slot. Most B-slots you would trade can be used in a S-seal however, so I wouldn’t bother.
Res bane is a safe one, as A-skill boosts you back up to 31 base res and both HP/Spd are super banes. Attack is low enough as is, so I would focus more on pairing Kliff with someone who has a rally/C-slot to aid in boosting Attack/Res rather than taking Attack as a babe. Having deflect magic as a S-slot also helps with Res bulk
Defense boon as 1) Sagittae already boosts defense, 2) A-slot boosts defense, 3) you can get a massive Ignis out of it. Maybe not Lukas levels, but for a mage with low attack and more bulky tendencies, Defense boon and Ignis are the way to go.

As Kliff is a pretty decent Mage Tank already, we could give him Close Counter to make him a viable Tank from both ranged foes and melee foes. He will however lose Fort. Def/Res 3, which is a particularly great skill for him and his weapon, Sagittae, but it can be compensated with a Defensive Seal and an Attack bane.

Swap is used in order to get Kliff in the face of foes he can take with ease, like Armored Units (except Green obviously) or Red units in general.
Chill Speed is kept in order to double/avoid being doubled.

Bonfire is the Special this set is using because it will greatly pair with his C skill : Def Wave.
Def Wave is chosen in order to maximize Kliff's Tank role, as his Defense is a little lower than his Resistance. If you want to use Res Wave in order to deal with Mages (as Dragons will focus your Defense if it's the lower of your Defensive stats), make sure you give him Iceberg instead of Bonfire.

Lastly, the Close Def Seal is used. In order to Tank Melee units like a champ, which is the point of this set.